5 posts tagged “vacation”

Guess who I got to spend today with???

This isn't all-inclusive, but it's a good start.

1.  When a border patrol officer asks "Where are you from?", answer him.  Don't feel conflicted and wonder if he'd rather know where you grew up or where you lived most of your adult life, or where you live now, or where you came from today.  Pick a place and answer.  No existential crisis is necessary.

2.  I do not like the Fisherman's Warf in San Francisco.  No, sirree.

3.  I like kayaking, but have difficulty doing two things at once (i.e. propelling myself forward with my arms and steering myself with my feet).  Add a third (trying not to scrape the skin off my thumbs) or fourth (I had my waterproof case on my camera to take photos), and I end up paddling myself in circles and nearly running into walls.  I'm sure this was quite comical.

4.  Fremont has stupid roads that are stupid.  Stupid, stupid.

5.  Reserving a spot on ferry boats is a good idea.  But sometimes, even if you did, if everyone in the US wants to cross into Canada at the same point, at the same time you do, then you'll miss all the ferries anyway.

6.  Sometimes you just have to admit that cutting ties and becoming a lesbian is the only logical answer to a problem.

7.  I like sloth bears.  Okay, this definitely isn't a new one.  But I really like sloth bears.

a.  Something I learned since vacation ended:  you can't post on craigslist offering to trade cuddles for a sloth bear.  Your post will get flagged and taken down.

8.  If your boss calls you at 4:30 am while you're on vacation, don't answer.

9.  Jungle gyms rock.

10.  Flash photography isn't always the devil.

11.  There is such a thing as too many cupcakes.  You should respect your own limits.

12.  Never underestimate the power of a good haircut or a good eyebrow waxing.

13.  Anyplace that gives you champagne while you wait gets an a+ from me.  Especially if cheese and crackers and grapes are available too.  *swoon*

14.  Flirtatious and attractive Italian men make excellent waiters.  And apartment decorations. (um, j/k)

15.  (The Fluevog store + Powell's Bookstore) is heaven.  Lavender honey ice cream is what you eat in heaven.

A vacation is absolutely and most definitely what I needed.  I am now back in my own bed at home, 10 days later, feeling vaguely euphoric, and in love with pretty much everyone.

This includes, but is definitely not limited to, the folks photo-ed below.

So my sleeping patterns are officially completely messed up.  I didn't sleep at all on Monday night, 10 hours last night and now it's 3:30 am and I'm only now finally getting sleepy.  I am getting so burned out on work that I might implode soon, but I'm hoping that I can get to ~5pm on Friday before that happens, because as of then, I'M ON VACATION.

Then, it's off to Seattle to kayak and eat cupcakes and bleach peacocks (because they don't have an albino one, so I just have to turn the one they have white) and NOT WORK.  And then San Francisco to take photos and eat cupcakes and... what? yes, NOT WORK.

Did I mention that I'm excited about vacation?

Don't get me wrong, I really do love my job, but it's been a super-busy season, and for ~4 wks now, I feel like all I'm doing is trying to catch up -- never being on top of things enough to... um, feel like I'm on top of things.  And sure, leaving for a week doesn't really help me with the catching up... but it does help me with my sanity.

And so I have 8 million things to do between now and Friday at 5.  And I don't imagine that all of them will get done. Especially if I plan on sleeping at all.  But that's okay. Because the cupcakes are coming, soon!

I feel like I haven't made enough people nauseous with my optimism lately.  This is likely because I haven't felt nauseatingly optimistic for the last week or so.  Now, don't confuse this with being pessimistic, there has just been... a lot going on, to say the least.

So I'm going to tell you all about some of the things in life that make me want to check a box to indicate "[das ist gut]".

1.  Tea.  I really like tea, especially when I'm feeling yucky, which I have been the past couple days.  When I lived in New Haven, Lauren and I had a crazy amount of tea, but when we moved, I gave most of it away.  So this week I had to go out and buy more.  Highlights are Ineeka's Chai (which is some of  the best chai I've ever had), Choice Organics' Earl Grey and Chammomile, and some wellness blends of Rooibos by The Republic of Tea.  I'd also like to find some good organic Jasmine, but I haven't gotten to that yet.

2.  Music.  I've been on a music binge lately.  Highlights:

• Tegan and Sara - If It Was You.  This isn't a new album to the world, but it is to me.  I had So Jealous before, and recently got If It Was You.  And as you can probably tell from my last.fm stats from last week, I've been liking it.
• VH1's top 100 80's songs, as part of a totally 80's week.  I'm not a huge fan of 80's music in general (which has been made painfully obvious to me when a good portion of my friends are just enough older than me that they actually really grew up in the 80's, rather than just being vaguely aware of the world), but for the portion of the show I saw (the whole thing was about 4 hrs, and overlapped with Grey's Anatomy/6 degrees), they chose some excellent songs.  So now I have a 80's music playlist on iTunes that I actually like.
• On this note, if you have some totally essential 80's song, let me know and I shall add it to my list.

• TMG - yes, yes, you all know I love them.... but 3 beads of sweat did a reprint of some of the older albums, and so I bought all 5 they were selling.  Which means I now have 13 albums, which amounts to 224 songs.  I now have all the full-length recordings, there are just a few EPs that I still lack.
• I also have a lot more new music than mentioned here, but I haven't gotten a chance to give it all a proper listen.
• Here are samples for you:  (Tegan & Sara's Not Tonight, Prince's Little Red Corvette and TMG's Wild Sage)